Quantitative phytochemical analysis of ethanolic extracts of capsicum annuum leaves and roots

Abstract

The research was conducted at Busitema University for a period of one month, plant materials were collected in Soroti City. The bioactive components in Capsicum annum leaves and roots were extracted by soxhelet reaction method where the extraction was done in Busitema University laboratory. The phytochemical screening in leaves revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavoids, tannins, saponins. However, glycosides and steroids were found. The phytochemical screening of Capsicum annum roots was conducted to determine the presence of alkaloids, tannins, glycosidenalgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties. From the findings of the experiment, phytochemical in the categories of Acetate, Diterpene alcohol and Fatty acid esters all had mean percentage concentration of greater than 3. Triterpene followed with mean percentage concentration of 2.42. However, only phytochemicals with match factor greater than 70% were considered, the rest of the phytochemicals with less than 70% match factor were not considered in this experiment. The results are summarized in figure 1 and the phytochemicals are listed in the table 1 at the appendix with their corresponding mean percentage concentration. 132 compounds were selected by sorting them using their match factor and those with match factor above 70% were then categorized. 54 different categories of phytochemicals were generated from the initial list and these included categories with one member which represented the majority while some had more than one member in the category. Five categories had mean percentage concentration of more than 0.50 but less than 1 and they included Steroid (0.9), Blank (0.78), Analgesic (0.70), Paraben (0.55), and Amide (0.54). The results of the experiment indicate that for categories of phytochemicals above 1.00 mean percentage concentration, for roots was 2.40±1.00 compared to leaves which was much lower at 1.52± 0.22. This finding suggests that the roots possess a greater potential for therapeutic and medicinal applications due to their richer phytochemical profile.